Once-in-a-generation Roby breaks Super League appearance record

The bronze statue of St Helens’ illustrious former hooker, Keiron Cunningham, pierces the skyline above the home of the reigning Super League champions. It is the first thing you see from the distance when you get within eyeshot of the Totally Wicked Stadium, and that is deliberate by design. There was never supposed to be another player like Cunningham, who won every trophy possible at St Helens and made almost 500 appearances for his hometown club.

It is why he was the obvious choice to be the player immortalised outside the Saints’ new stadium when they moved here a decade or so ago. Nobody could have expected Cunningham’s successor in the hooking role to even come close to matching what the Welshman did in a St Helens shirt but at this rate, it will not be too long before there’s a bronze version of James Roby standing next to the man he grew up idolising, you imagine.

They came from afar to watch Roby set his latest record in a seemingly never-ending list of rugby league accomplishments. To break any milestone set by Kevin Sinfield is serious business, but this, a 455th Super League appearance to take Roby past the former Leeds captain, simply underlines the longevity of a career that is still showing no signs of slowing down judging by the 36-year-old’s performances this season.

St Helens supporters from as far as Scotland were here to make sure they did not miss Roby’s big day, and he went about his business in typically unassuming fashion as the Super League champions reasserted their dominance at the top with a narrow 26-18 victory against Hull Kingston Rovers. Roby was firmly at the heart of it with his first-half try accompanying an energy-sapping 80-minute display in the middle of the field that players of